


Intense, like camping

by Zofiecfield



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26722324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zofiecfield/pseuds/Zofiecfield
Summary: Waverly and Wynonna run into Nicole while camping.  Fluff and an exasperated Waverly ensue.Chapter 3 is now up, in which they are a bit tied up...
Relationships: Waverly Earp & Nicole Haught, Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught
Comments: 13
Kudos: 195





	1. Useless

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Wynonna complained, climbing out of the jeep. 

Waverly shoved her gently. "Hush, we’re going to have fun.”

“I’d rather be putting lead through the grey matter of hell-spawn and dancing in the slippery puddles they leave behind.” 

“That’s very graphic, thank you. Go unload the firewood.” 

Wynonna stuck out her tongue but headed off to do as she was told. 

“Actually,” she said a moment later, looking over Waverly’s shoulder. “I take that all back. This is going to be _super_ fun.”

Confused, Waverly turned to follow Wynonna’s line of sight. Her face immediately paled. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes,” Wynonna replied, gleeful. “I believe our neighbor is none other than Officer Haughtsauce herself.”

“Wynonna, please,” Waverly turned to her sister, pleading.

Wynonna grinned even broader and took a step back. She sang, taunting, “Ms. Tater Haught. Your number one honeybun. Your giiiiiirlfriend.”

Waverly leapt forward and tackled Wynonna, clamping a hand over her mouth in a futile attempt to silence her. “She is not my girlfriend,” Wavery whispered, panicked. “We’ve barely ever spoken! I should never have told you that I-“

“Liiiike her.” Wynonna wrenched herself away from Waverly and shouted, “Officer Haught! Hey! Fancy seeing you here!”

Waverly groaned, defeated, cheeks blushing beet red at the sound of the voice approaching behind her.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the Earp sisters.” Nicole walked through the small patch of trees separating their campsites. She crossed to stand directly next to Waverly, beaming down at her. “Hi. It’s nice to see you.”

“Hi,” Waverly stuttered, blushing and running a hand absentmindedly through her hair. 

“We’re right over there.” Nicole nodded to the adjacent site. “Come visit when you’re all set up!”

Waverly opened her mouth to refuse, already shaking her head, but was cut off by Wynonna, who interjected, “Sounds excellent.” 

“You were right, baby girl,” she said, throwing a mischievous smile at Waverly. “This will be fun!”

* * *

“Wynonna! That is not helpful!” Waverly smacked Wynonna’s hand away from the rain fly.

Wynonna ignored her completely and hummed happily to herself, continuing to tangle the material as Waverly tried desperately to tie it down. 

“Looks like that tent is winning.” Nicole called, watching from her campsite and grinning. “Can I help?”

Waverly whipped around, stumbling back against the partially erect tent. “Oh, no, thank you though," she said, breathless and wildly failing to appear unfazed. “We have it under control.” She gave an awkward little bow and instantly regretted it, turning quickly back to her task to hide her rapidly flushing cheeks.

“Okay, well, just holler if you change your mind,” Nicole said, laughter barely contained in her voice.

“I know what you’re doing, Wynonna,” Waverly hissed urgently, eyes darting towards Nicole. “Stop it!”

Wynonna stared at her, eyebrows quizzical, the very picture of innocence. Waverly groaned and began to wrestle with the tent again.

* * *

"I _know_ you know how to build a fire. Please, Wynonna." Waverly stood, wilted, in front of the small log cabin Wynonna had constructed with their firewood. 

Wynonna shook her head, unhelpfully. 

Waverly sighed. "Fine. I'll do it. Just go get the matches." Wynonna stared at her blankly. "You didn’t bring matches. Really? Are you messing with me?" She screwed up her eyes and searched Wynonna's face, then slumped, defeated. "Wynonna. You had, like, two things to remember."

"I’m sorry," Wynonna said, not appearing sorry at all. She shrugged, "You’ll have to go borrow them."

Waverly stomped a foot in exasperation, fists white knuckled. " _You_ go borrow them!"

"You know I don’t mix well with cops. And anyway, who knows what I might say, _accidentally_?" Wynonna plopped down and began remodeling her log stack, pausing to give Waverly a large grin and shoo her away.

"Fuck you," Waverly whispered as she turned slowly, resigned, and headed for the other campsite. Nicole saw her coming and met her halfway.

"Rough start, huh?" Nicole nodded towards the empty fire pit, and Waverly grimaced. 

"Rough sister."

Nicole laughed. "Why don’t you come join us for dinner? We have plenty. Save your firewood for the morning."

 _Us?_ Waverly caught the pronoun and her stomach sank. Of course. Nicole wasn't alone. She scanned the campsite quickly, finding only one tent, and her stomach sank further.

"Oh, no, we couldn’t possibly," she said in a rush, already stepping back towards her campsite.

"Sounds great!" Wynonna shouted loudly from her pile of sticks. Waverly shot her a hard glare, but both Wynonna and Nicole chose to ignore her.

Nicole grinned, broadly. "Great!"


	2. Partners in crime

A few moments later, Waverly returned from the jeep, arms laden with a large bag of chips, pretzels, hummus, and other snacks. 

"Wow," Nicole said, eyebrows rising. "That's a lot of snacks! You were only planning to camp one night, right?" 

Waverly shrugged, sheepishly, and started blushing again. Just then, at the far edge of the campsite, tucked nearly out of view amongst the trees, a second tent rustled, saving her from responding. 

A teenage girl climbed out of tent, dragging headphones down around her neck. "Did I hear snacks?" 

The girl wandered over and spotted the pile of bags and packages in Waverly's arms. She plucked a bag of pretzels off the top and flopped down on the picnic bench. "Thank gods," she sighed and jerked her head towards Nicole. "All she feeds me is vegetables." 

"Not true!" Nicole exclaimed, indignant and horrified. "And where are your manners?" 

The teen ignored her and busted open the bag. She nodded to Wynonna, looking her up and down. "Killer jacket."

"Thank you, young one," Wynonna said, ever more chipper as events unfolded.

Deflated, Nicole began introductions. "This is Rachel, my -"

"Daughter," Rachel finished for her.

" _Cousin_ ," Nicole said quickly, almost shouting the word. She slumped slightly and gave Rachel a pleading look. "Please, please stop telling people I'm your mom. There are rumors about me all over town now."

Rachel stared at her blankly. Nicole signed and contiued. "Rachel, meet Waverly and Wynonna Earp. They're in the next campsite and I invited them to join us for dinner."

Rachel perked up immediately, eyes zeroing in on Waverly with a flash of recognition. "Waverly Earp? _The_ Waverly Earp?" 

"Yes?" Waverly looked nervous, under the appraising gaze of this kid. 

Rachel grinned at Nicole, mischief dancing across her face. Nicole shot her a severe warning look and mouthed, _"No! Stop!"_ It was entirely ineffective.

"So nice to meet you both. We're going to have fun tonight," Rachel finished, still grinning. With that, she flopped back on the bench. She pulled on her headphones and began to munch enthusiastically.

"I like her!" Wynonna approved, looking a teensy bit giddy.

* * *

Nicole, a master camper and seasoned adventurer, used 27 matches trying to start the fire. With each discarded stick, she grew more flustered and her face gained another shade of pink. Waverly, perched on a log next to her, sympathetic and encouraging, was not helping her blood pressure either.

Only after match 28 did Nicole look up and see Wynonna and Rachel crouched across the fire pit, blowing out each match as it landed on the kindling and whispering to each other giddily. Nicole paled and a growl rose up from her gut. Waverly saw them at the same time and jumped up to shoo them away. The words _menace_ and _nuisance_ may have been used. 

Waverly returned to the fire pit and gingerly took the box of matches from Nicole's hand. She lit a match and tucked it carefully under the kindling, which immediately caught. "There," she said, resuming her perch. "Now we're cooking. Those matches must just have been intimidated by your..." She trailed off. Forgetting for a moment where she was and who she was with, she had looked up and met Nicole's eyes. Words abandoned her.

They stared at each other for a long moment, breaths slowing, distracted.

Snickering from the picnic table broke the spell.

"Dinner!" Waverly exclaimed, shooting to her feet.

"Yep!" Nicole cleared her throat and poked unnecessarily at the fire, adding another log.

* * *

They began to prepare dinner. Well, Waverly and Nicole prepared dinner, cutting up vegetables and tofu to tuck into neat foil packets. The other two hindered the process at every turn. 

Anything Waverly needed seemed to migrate to Nicole's cutting board, and everything Nicole needed somehow was found on the far side of Waverly's sheets of foil. This left them forever reaching over one another, both blushing every time their hands brushed. 

Things dropped on the ground between them mercilessly, always rolling away wonky. This resulted in several rounds of "I'll get it," "No, I will," leaving them frazzled and studiously avoiding eye contact. 

No amount of glaring at their respective campmates made the torture end.

* * *

An hour later, filled with sidelong glances between Waverly and Nicole, and much snarky banter between Wynonna and Rachel, dinner was finally ready. 

They settled at the picnic table, Rachel spread across one bench, and the other three crowded side by side on the second. Nicole tried several times to curb Rachel's sprawl, but to no avail. 

Squashed in the middle, Waverly had to tuck her elbows in to avoid contact with Nicole. She glared at Wynonna, who smiled sweetly in return. 

"Waverly, could you pass me a fork?" Wynonna pointed to the pile of silverware in front of Nicole. "Actually, I can reach it, I think." 

Wynonna stood and leaned across Waverly, bumping her firmly. With a squeak, Waverly was pressed into Nicole, who gasped as she began to fall off the bench. Flailing, Nicole reached a hand out quickly to steady herself. Then, she froze.

In slow motion, she looked down at her hand, now resting squarely on Waverly Earp's upper inner thigh. Waverly's gaze followed the same path. Without any conscious thoughts available to her suddenly very foggy brain, she lifted a hand and traced her fingers lightly across Nicole's hand, from wrist to fingertips.

One of them gulped. The other may have stopped breathing. Unnoticed by either, Wynonna and Rachel high-fived quietly across the table. Dazed, Waverly and Nicole returned to present tense slowly. 

Mission accomplished for the moment, Wynonna and Rachel behaved themselves, and the rest of the meal passed in pleasant conversation.

* * *

As darkness began to fall, loud music started up on the opposite side of the campground, and the accompanying roars cut through the gentle rustle of falling night. 

Wynonna sat up straight and turned an ear to listen, like a puppy. A wicked grin slid across her face, in full delight. “My people call to me,” she sang, rising quickly. “I’ll be back later.” 

"Wynonna," Waverly hissed, eyes darting to Nicole and back in a desperate attempt to deter her. "You should stay."

"Alas, I cannot." Wynonna did a little happy dance and then offered an elbow to Rachel with a chivalrous bow. “M’lady? Shall we go?”

Rachel was off the bench in a hot second, taking Wynonna’s arm. “Fuck, yes. Save me from this hell.”

Nicole threw an arm out between them. “Fuck, no. You stay here.”

With a dramatic sigh, Rachel plopped back down. Wynonna spared her a pitying grimace. “Sorry, little fry. Another time.” But, as soon as Nicole looked away for a second, she winked and mouthed, _“later."_

Waverly saw this, and gave Wynonna a pleading stare. “Stay out of trouble, please?”

With a little hop, Wynonna saluted her. “Scouts’ honor,” she said, the picture of solemnity, before skipping away.

Waverly groaned and thunked her head onto the table. “She flunked out of scouts. The whole campground will be in flames by morning.”

Nicole rubbed her back for a moment, an offer of comfort that instead delivered an electric shiver up Waverly’s spine, serving to distract her sufficiently.

“We have cards. Want to play, while there’s still a little daylight left?” Nicole dug in her backpack, producing a battered deck. Waverly agreed, if only to watch Nicole’s elegant hands shuffle.

Glancing up and catching her staring, Nicole did her best to hide the wild smile that slid across her face. “Rachel, should I deal you in too?”

With her best exasperated look at the two of them, Rachel grabbed her phone and the bag of pretzels, and stood. “No. I’ll be in my tent. For the rest of the night. Bored.” 

Watching her walk away, Waverly cringed. “Oh no, I’m disrupting your night, aren’t I? I should go.”

A sadness passed across Nicole’s face, visible for only an instant, as the tent door zipped shut, the blue light of Rachel’s phone shining through the fabric brightly. She turned to Waverly and started dealing cards. “Don’t leave.” 

She nodded towards the tent, and explained, “She’s a great kid. When her mom died earlier this year, she completely shut down. She barely speaks to me now, but she's so worth the effort.” She fanned out the cards in her hand, and shook her head a little, smile returning to her face. “Goofing around and scheming with Wynonna tonight? I think that's first time I’ve seen her laugh in days.”

She looked up and met Waverly's gaze softly, the corners of her eyes crinkling and dimples emerging. "I'm so glad we ran into each other tonight."

Waverly only barely kept herself upright on the bench as she ducked her head to studiously examine her cards, beaming.


	3. Tied Up

The night carried Waverly and Nicole to the fire. Nicole went to add a log and stoke the flames. Waverly followed and sat on the ground beside her. The chairs they’d set up earlier would have been comfier, but with Waverly so close beside her like that, there was no way Nicole would suggest moving. A cold butt was worth the proximity.

They had flirted with the idea of making s’mores, but decided to wait until Wynonna and Rachel were around. They'd be making breakfast s'mores, at this rate. 

They lost themselves in the pleasant noise of a campground at night, their content silence punctuated by bursts of easy conversation. Time slipped by, unnoticed. 

Nicole kept her eyes on the fire, since her gaze drifted to lips any time she tried to sustain eye contact. Each look set her heart racing, flailing in her chest for a moment.

Waverly kept her hands tucked into her pockets, since any time she freed them, they found an excuse to touch Nicole in some small way. Each touch was an electric jolt straight to the butterflies terrorizing her stomach.

Nothing could disrupt the cocoon of night that had wrapped Waverly and Nicole up snuggly, narrowing the world to include only the two of them.

Nothing, that is, until the brush of fur across Waverly's knee. 

Waverly gasped and flung herself away from the intruder, landing awkwardly sprawled across Nicole's lap. Nicole laughed and started to ask, but stopped short as a streak of white fur flickered through her peripheral vision. 

"Stand up very slowly," she whispered, helping Waverly to her feet. "It's a skunk." By the light of the fire, she slowly scanned the camp site. " _Shit_. Four skunks."

Entirely unperturbed, three skunks were ambling across the campsite, heading straight for Waverly and Nicole, following the path their leader had taken.

"Gah," Waverly grunted as they crept gingerly away from the fire pit. 

She stepped on a twig, which snapped loudly. 

They froze. 

One skunk stopped, turning in their direction. Waverly and Nicole watched in suspense as the remaining three turned to face them as well. Uttering a low string of appeals to the skunks' decency, Nicole took Waverly's hand, tiptoeing towards her tent.

The leader, still closest to them, raised its tail slowly and began to turn. 

"Run!" shouted Nicole, leaping for the tent and dragging the zipper open with shaking hands. They dove in and fumbled to closed the door properly, the zipper repeatedly snagging on the material.

The compact tent, intended only for one body, left them in a tangle of limbs. Breathing heavily, Nicole grinned at Waverly. "If you wanted to cuddle, you could have just asked! No need to bring skunks into the picture."

They both burst into deep laughter, tears streaming down their eyes. Nicole flopped down on the sleeping bag, scooting all the way over to make room for Waverly. In the confines of the small space, they were squished hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder.

"Wynonna will be so disappointed she wasn't here to see that," Waverly coughed out, between fits of laughing. "She worked so hard all day, and the skunks got it done in thirty seconds flat." 

Realizing what she had said, her face dropped and she choked a bit on the final laugh.

"What does that mean?" Nicole propped herself up on one elbow and searched Waverly's face, amusement twinkling in her eyes.

Kicking herself for having said anything, Waverly reluctantly explained, "Wynonna was teasing me about you, trying to push us together all night." She blushed as she spoke and tried to brush it off as nothing. "Just silly sister stuff, you know? She's a pain."

Nicole studied her for a moment, considering. Then a smile slid onto her lips and she shook her head fondly. "Rachel teases me about you all the time," she admitted. "Wynonna found a partner in crime tonight, I think."

Hope flashed across Waverly's face, and Nicole caught it. "Waverly, I -"

Waverly leaned over and kissed Nicole, who reacted immediately, sweeping her in closer. Months of longing for each other from a distance quickly pulled them deeper into the kiss. The tiny tent cheered them on.

Eventually, oxygen demanded and they pulled apart. Nicole shifted to hover over Waverly, breath coming out ragged. "The skunks are probably gone. We could go back out. If you want to," she offered, words spoken softly against Waverly's lips. 

"In a moment," Waverly said, tracing Nicole’s collar bone with her thumb lightly. Nicole sucked in a shuddering breath. Well, half a shuddering breath.

The unmistakable clicking of zip ties stopped Nicole mid-inhale. She furrowed her brow, turning towards the noise and muttering, “What the hell?” 

She sat up and switched on the small lantern hanging overhead. She began to unzip the tent, but found the zipper jammed.

No, not jammed. Zip tied shut.

Nicole swore loudly, which earned her an evil cackle and giddy whispers from outside the tent, tiptoes on crunching of leaves. 

Waverly bolted up, alarmed. “I know that mischievous whisper!” She flipped herself onto her knees and bellowed into the night, “WYNONNA!” 

The chuckles turned to outright laughter.

Nicole paled and started fumbling through her pockets. “And I know that laugh. RACHEL VALDEZ, you get that SCRAWNY butt back here right now!” She threw her hands up in frustration. “Where the hell is my knife?”

With a healthy sprinkle of profanity, two sets of footsteps could be heard running from the tent. “We’re going to eat all the marshmallows,” Rachel shouted over her shoulder. “And all the chocolate!” added Wynonna.

Nicole growled, still searching for something to cut them free. “They won’t even toast them. Just gonna eat them cold, like heathens,” she muttered to herself darkly. 

“Ah! Got it!” She perked up, brandishing a small pocketknife and hunching forward to study the zipper closely.

Waverly slid her hand across Nicole’s, effectively stilling her movement. “Or,” she shifted closer on knees, her body pressed lightly against Nicole’s back, “we could let them have their fun.” She bent to kiss Nicole’s neck, just under the jawline. “And we could stay here, and have our fun.”

In slow motion, Nicole closed the knife with distracted hands and tucked it into a small pocket on the side of the tent. Her eyes drifted shut and she let out a shaky breath as Waverly ran a fingertip along the shell of her ear and then lightly bit the lobe. In one swift movement, Nicole turned and pinned Waverly to the sleeping bag, straddling her hips.

“Yeah, okay, you’re right,” Nicole husked, grinning and breathless already, as Waverly laughed. She leaned down and ghosted her lips across Waverly’s. “That’s a much better idea."


End file.
